Dwyane Wade Thinks The Warriors Can’t Embrace Being The NBA’s Biggest Villains


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There aren’t many people who know what challenges the Golden State Warriors may face better than Dwyane Wade. The current star for the Chicago Bulls was, of course, a member of the Miami Heat team that combined himself with LeBron James and Chris Bosh, forming maybe the best superteam of all-time.

Wade also knows better than anyone that, sometimes, teams loaded with stars take some time to come together. The Heat struggled at first once they added James and Bosh – the squad went 9-8 over its first 17 games – and as Wade told Basketball Insiders, he wants Kevin Durant and the Warriors to know that they need to be patient if they want to be successful.

“It takes time,” he said with a chuckle. Recalling his experience with the HEAT, Wade knows that winning was about more than names on paper. “We had great players, but we had a lot of guys who already was used to something a certain way and it just took a little time.”

“Everybody wanted to beat us, so everybody was playing their tail off against us,” Wade recalled. “It took time for us to get to the game that we wanted to get to.”

Wade also gave a good piece of advice to the Warriors about how to handle the pressure of being the NBA’s most hated team. It also gives a good look into the way the Heat really embraced being the NBA’s biggest villains at first and how they evolved during their time together.

“I think them guys understand what it takes,” Wade said of the sacrifices needed to win under such circumstances. “I think the biggest thing is, what I say is just enjoy it. One thing we did wrong our first year was we played into the villain role because people was not liking that we was together and we tried to play into that role. That’s not why we started playing basketball – we started playing basketball because we enjoyed it and we loved it.”

Like many of us, Wade expressed some surprise over the fact that Durant ended up joined the Warriors, but he also expressed his happiness that NBA players are allowed to jump from team to team so freely.

It’s so interesting listening to a current dude in the league express his thoughts on the way the Warriors came together, both because all roads to a championship probably go through this team and because plenty of older players have criticized Durant for his decision. Sure, this may change if we get Bulls vs. Warriors in the Finals, but for now, it seems like Wade generally supports the way the NBA got its latest superteam.

(Via Basketball Insiders)

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